THE N-PHOTO
Swedish photographer Göran Strand has been star-struck since he was a child. Today, he is one of the world’s pre-eminent astrophotographers. He sheds some light for Keith Wilson about shooting lunar halos, solar eclipses and the Northern Lights…
Every night, there is one photographic subject that is accessible to all of us, no matter where in the world we might be. All you have to do is look up, and there they are: the stars. Admittedly, a night sky covered in cloud or obscured by the light pollution over a big town or city can affect the quality of the view, but with the long nights of winter upon us in the northern hemisphere, now is the best time to photograph celestial displays.
Göran Strand knows better than most how to get results that will leave you feeling heavenly, thanks to his own life-long passion for astronomy. “I can’t say what sparked my childhood fascination with astronomy,” he says. “From what I recall, it’s always been there. I can still remember being five or six years old, lying on my back in the snow just watching the stars and wondering what was out there.”
In his teens, Göran sought out astronomy books in his local library and in 1986, when he was just 16 years old, he saw the fabled Halley’s Comet from his backyard. Halley is the only known short-period comet that is regularly visible to the naked eye from Earth, but Göran wasn’t into photography back then. As the comet is not expected to appear again until 2061, he knows he will be a very old man if he does get the chance to photograph it next time round…
When did photography start to become an interest, and what were your first photos like?
In the early 1990s, I did a lot of mountain hiking and started to bring a camera along with me, so I started out doing nature photography while hiking. Then in 1996, when I bought my first telescope, I starte
